Fatal Strike: Paladins Mercenary Road

Chapter 926 An unexpected gain

Duchamp used pre-placed Claymore directional mines to periodically stall the pursuing enemy, and would occasionally peek out from the coniferous forest to alert the helicopters overhead to their location...

His actions brought a huge crisis to his team!

The helicopters sent by the Kosovo Liberation Organization were not equipped with rocket launchers, but they could open the hatches and fire machine guns at the ground.

The coniferous forests along Duchamp and his men's escape route provided them with ample cover, while their seemingly feeble counterattacks with their AT4s forced the helicopters to increase their altitude.

Under these circumstances, they accomplished what can be described as an extreme 'escape' in the combat history of the Northern Brigade!
As Duchamp and his men charged into a canyon, the two helicopters in the sky finally found their opportunity. With a clear view of Duchamp and his men, they quickly descended and adjusted their angle to allow the machine gunners sitting on the sides to fire downwards...

Two helicopters, one in front and one behind, encircled Dushan and his men, while the pursuing force was also approaching the canyon...

Just as the machine gunner on the helicopter was about to fire, two missiles suddenly appeared on the hills on the other side of the canyon.

Two Stinger sniper rifles, leaving clear trails, struck the helicopter's fuselage...

"Boom boom..."

The two helicopters, which had been so imposing just moments before, plummeted to the ground amidst thick smoke from the explosion.

"boom"

"boom"

Two huge explosions rang out, one after the other...

The towering flames and thick smoke caused the Kosovo Liberation Organization soldiers who were chasing behind to stop, but the commander at the rear clearly realized that Dushan and his men had encountered people who came to meet them, so he not only did not stop, but also urged everyone to speed up.

Modern warfare has led to the decline of human strategic wisdom!

Many people may not acknowledge this, but the reality is that modern technology and warfare have broken the rigid requirement for ancient generals to know the weather and the terrain.

The squad-based counterinsurgency model minimizes the intensity of the war, then focuses on the quality of personnel and, most importantly, logistical resources.

In this respect, the United States military is currently among the best in the world.

Because the ground troops are truly willing to call for help, and their air force is also truly willing to violently bombard the ground when providing support.

When people begin to define this combat mode as an 'advanced mode,' they naturally overlook some more important things, such as 'fire'...

Throughout the history of Tokyo University, "fire attack" has been a favorite tactic of strategists, because as long as you can make good use of the terrain, you don't even need to actually burn your opponent to death...

Light the fire at the right location and block the enemy's escape route; the thick smoke will kill before the flames do.

There was nothing unusual about the canyon that Duchamp and his men had evacuated from, but the depression they had passed through earlier, surrounded by several hills, looked like a plump apple when viewed from the air, and the canyon was like the apple's stem...

Just as the main pursuing force entered the "Apple's" belly, more than a dozen explosions suddenly occurred throughout the coniferous forest, which covered more than ten acres...

As the extremely vicious napalm bomb exploded, large amounts of burning material were sprayed onto the surrounding coniferous forest like a torrential rain.

Some of the already dried-out pine trees were quickly set ablaze, and at the same time, the dry trees that had accumulated on the ground also began to burn.

The fire first blocked the pursuers' retreat, and as the airflow continued to flow from the canyon into the depression, the flames that had been set to erupt at predetermined locations began to swirl and spread in the depression with the airflow.

The Kosovo Liberation Organization members trapped inside were like rats in a bellows, driven around frantically by the smoke and fire, desperately searching for a place where they could breathe some fresh air.

However, the lack of oxygen and the violent coughing not only affected their physical strength, but also their ability to think.

Most of them couldn't even find their way back. Several devastated soldiers faced a thin wall of fire but didn't have the courage to break through. After the smoke engulfed them, they collapsed to the ground in agony. Under the influence of the fire, their bodies began to curl up and ooze oil, eventually becoming new fuel.

Under the intense heat, even the pine trees that were still alive began to crackle and burn. As the pine branches, containing moisture and resin, started to burn rapidly, massive amounts of thick smoke, carried by the airflow blowing into the canyon, began to swirl and spread rapidly throughout the depression...

The thick smoke acted like a death knell, squeezing out the last vestiges of life from those trapped inside.

"boom"

"boom"

…………

Having reached the middle of the canyon, Duchamp looked back and saw that the path he had come from had turned into a giant furnace. The gunshots were clearly not aimed at the canyon, so it could only be that the trapped soldiers had set it up themselves to avoid being burned alive...

Just as he was about to say something in disbelief, Blood Fox and Sang Jia led a team of people carrying heavy weapons and charged over...

Seeing Duchamp's stunned expression, Blood Fox distributed gas masks to them, then set up several heavy machine guns in the middle of the canyon, and finally shouted, "You stay here and block the canyon. Don't let anyone escape from here..."

Duchamp paused for a moment, then looked back at the furnace-like area and shook his head, saying, "I don't think anyone could get out of this fire. They're all doomed..."

Duchamp rubbed his eyes in disbelief and said, "Fuck, am I dreaming?"

There were nearly two hundred of them, and that's how they were..."

Blood Fox didn't have time to waste words with Duchamp. He left behind enough ammunition and supplies, pointed to the other end of the canyon and shouted, "I left you a rubber assault boat over there. You stay here to keep watch, and once you've made sure everything is alright, take the assault boat back to your secret camp."

Upon hearing this, Duchamp instinctively asked, "And what about you?"

Blood Fox waved her hand and said, "Mountain Eagle's plan is a bit risky. I need to go and meet them..."

…………

As Blood Fox and his team succeeded, Mountain Eagle, wearing a gas mask, forcefully yanked open the iron gate of the secret base and stepped into the dark passage first. After advancing about 40 meters along a semi-natural passage, they arrived at a relatively spacious area, where a new iron gate appeared before them.

Mountain Eagle opened two old-looking crates piled against the walls on either side of the iron gate and found them filled with weapons and ammunition that had expired some time ago, as well as some canned food with rusted outer shells...

Just as he was about to try to open the iron gate, Eddie suddenly let out a gasp...

"Fuck what is this?"

The mountain eagle walked up to Eddie, glanced at him curiously, and discovered that a box Eddie had opened was full of deformed and faded old Euros...

I reached out and picked up a stack of them. Sure enough, these were euros issued by the EU when the Eurozone was first established. However, these coins were not properly stored and had begun to rot.

This discovery startled Mountain Eagle. When he looked at the closed iron gate again, he suddenly realized that although the Kosovo Liberation Organization had occupied this secret base, they did not know much about it. They might not have even discovered this secret passage leading to the back of the mountain.

Eddie tossed aside the tattered euro notes in his hand, opened a box below, whistled, and laughed, saying, "See? I knew these guys wouldn't just bring cash..."

As he spoke, Eddie took a coin out of the box and tossed it to the mountain eagle, laughing as he said, "Look what this is!"

The light inside the mountain was too dim, so the eagle couldn't see clearly at all, and he instinctively took the coin...

The moment the coin was in his hand, Mountain Eagle couldn't help but sigh and say, "It's a gold coin..."

He held the gold coin up to his eyes and examined it closely, saying, "It has the mark of the Yugoslav Federation on it; it should be a one-ounce gold coin minted by the Yugoslav Federation at that time..."

Its purity is only 90%, roughly the same as the gold content of early Tsarist gold coins.

Eddie reached into the box and rummaged through the gold coins, grinning smugly as he said, "There are at least 2000 of these. How much do you think they're worth?"

Is this enough for us...?

Before Eddie could finish speaking, Mountain Eagle tossed the gold coins back into the box, shook his head with a smile, and said, "At one ounce per gold coin, 2000 gold coins would be worth less than $300 million at the current market price."

If you like them, take two as souvenirs. I'll handle the rest; half will go into the Fjällräven Foundation, and the rest I'll convert into cash and transfer to you.”

As he spoke, Mountain Eagle quickly opened all the boxes. After confirming that there were no valuable items inside, he closed the box containing euros and gold coins and put it in the corner.

Then he walked up to the iron gate and gave it a hard tug...

This seemingly sturdy iron door was completely different from the one outside. As the mountain eagle exerted its strength, the sheet metal on the door made strange noises and began to deform.

The mountain eagle braced one foot against the mountain wall, grabbed the deformed part with both hands, and roared as it exerted force again. Then, to Eddie and Camel's astonishment, it twisted and deformed an iron gate.

With the bolt on the iron gate coming loose, a muffled "bang" echoed as the entire gate was pulled open.

The eagle, having exerted too much force, plopped down on the ground and stared at the wall behind the door...

"Fuck, no wonder they didn't notice, the exit was blocked..."

As he spoke, the mountain eagle stepped forward and gently tapped on the wall, discovering that it was boarded up...

This thing definitely couldn't stop him. After activating the Golden Cicada to confirm that no one was behind the wall, Mountain Eagle pulled out his dagger and forcefully stabbed it into the wooden wall. After making an opening big enough to put his hand in, he stomped on and broke the wooden frame behind the wall...

Once the wooden plank wall lost its support, the mountain eagle grabbed a slightly rotten plank and pulled hard, dragging a large, musty-smelling plank over.

After several attempts, they successfully carved out a large enough hole for one person to enter.

After the three of them entered, Mountain Eagle discovered that it was actually an equipment warehouse...

However, the iron racks that should have been full of weapons were completely empty, with only a few racks near the exit still piled with ammunition and other items.

This semi-abandoned place naturally went unnoticed, but the area outside the equipment room was quite lively...

With a deafening roar of its engine, an old-fashioned tracked armored personnel carrier was started up and drove along an underground tunnel toward the 'farm'...

Mountain Eagle opened the door to the equipment room, looked at the equipment parked in the not-so-spacious space outside, and made a gesture to Eddie and Camel...

"There are more than twenty people outside, and they only have handguns. I'll cut the power..."

Eddie walked up behind Mountain Eagle and patted him on the shoulder...

"I'll walk on either side with the camel, you walk in the middle, don't rush too far forward..."

Mountain Eagle nodded knowingly, leaned forward, aimed at the several transformer boxes attached to the wall to the side, and said, "Let's go..."

………………

"Boom boom boom boom..."

"Bang bang bang bang bang..."

As Mountain Eagle and his team prepared for their surprise attack, an aging Mi-17 strayed into the 'farm' area...

After the rocket pod unleashed all its munitions onto the ground, the Mi-17 hovered erratically at a height of over 20 meters in front of the 'farm'...

Machine gunners on both sides provided cover fire with heavy machine guns, spraying bullets into the 'farm'. Then, two rappelling ropes were thrown out, and a group of South American soldiers, without even using safety ropes, simply grabbed the ropes and slid down...

(End of this chapter)